Hamas: We are keen on achieving national dialogue and on easing obstacles

Hamas Movement has confirmed Saturday that it was and still is keen on achieving national reconciliation, but blamed Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah faction, for the continued political rift in the Palestinian arena.

Hamas Movement has confirmed Saturday that it was and still is keen on achieving national reconciliation, but blamed Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah faction, for the continued political rift in the Palestinian arena.

The Movement also explained that despite the keenness on the reconciliation, which is based on the Movement's national duty, Hamas doesn’t beg to meet anyone.

"We in Hamas are indeed keen on the dialogue and on achieving national reconciliation and on easing all obstacles blocking that goal, however, we don’t gasp behind meeting anyone at the expense of our national constants", the Movement asserted in a statement it issued in reaction to the statements of Abbas in Egypt.

While in Egypt, Abbas said he won't meet with Khalid Mishaal, Hamas's supreme political leader, unless Hamas signed the Egyptian paper without modification or further discussions.

According to Hamas, Abbas's statements were nothing but a submission to the US and Israeli veto that rejects any Palestinian reconciliation without Hamas accepting the conditions of the Quartet Committee, including recognizing the Israeli occupation of 78% of Palestine among other conditions which Hamas firmly rejected.

In this regard, Hamas held Abbas solely responsible for derailing the national reconciliation, underlining it would immediately sign the Egyptian paper based on the understandings between Hamas Fatah no less and no more.

"The present Egyptian paper doesn't completely reflect what had been truly agreed upon between Hamas and Fatah, and thus the paper must be examined and compared to the drafts that had been signed between the two factions", Hamas noted in the statement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian lawmaker MP Dr. Yahya Mousa of Hamas Movement blamed Sha'ath for issuing a statement that attempted to portray Hamas Movement as if it has two wings, one moderate in Gaza, and another radical in Damascus, stressing that Hamas leadership is one and its decision is united.

He described the statements as "mistaken" on the part of Sha'ath who shouldn’t destroy the hope he created by his visit to Gaza and meeting with Hamas leaders there.

In Gaza Strip, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas Movement in the Strip, pointed out that Abbas's statements prove that neither he nor his Fatah faction were serious in ending the Palestinian political rift.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel Saturday, Abu Zuhri said that the statements of Abbas don’t provide positive atmosphere to push the reconciliation efforts forward, underscoring that leaders of Hamas Movement in Palestine and abroad publicly expressed their readiness to achieve national reconciliation and to find a "solution" to the Egyptian paper.

"The ball now is in the Egyptian court as we urged Cairo to invite both factions to discuss Hamas's reservations on the modified Egyptian paper, and we are still waiting for that invitation", Abu Zuhri explained.

In the West Bank, the armed militias of Abbas continued their campaign against Hamas supporters a couple of days after Sha'ath's visit to Gaza and the warmed welcome he was accorded to by Hamas leaders there.

According to a statement issued by Hamas Movement in the West Bank, at least 50 supporters of the Islamic Movement, most of them ex-prisoners in Israeli jails and the jails of Abbas, were summoned to the PA security departments in different parts of the West Bank. Six other supporters were arrested in Al-Khalil, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Qalqilia.